Missouri offers an interesting opportunity for Democrats to pick up another Senate seat. Incumbent Republican Roy Blunt was a clear favorite, but you can see from this ad that Jason Kandor is a formidable candidate.

Blunt has been attacking Kandor on the gun issue, so Kander, a former Army Captain who volunteered to serve in Afghanistan, went right after Blunt on this issue.

This is the kind of things more candidates need to do. Appeal directly to voters in their ads, and take on issues raised in the campaign. Having a clever angle like assembling a gun while blindfolded also helps!

We all know that the national debt needs to be addressed, but undercutting the fundamental entitlement of Medicare isn’t the way to accomplish this. By choosing Paul Ryan, Romney has doubled down on this fundamental change to to Medicare, and the Obama campaign will hammer him on this through election day.

Romney has tried to fight back by focusing on Obama’s cuts to Medicare, but those cuts have nothing to do with benefits for seniors. The only way to address the nation’s long term medical costs is too reform the way we pay for health care, particularly through Medicare. We can’t continue the destructive fee-for-service system we have in place, and we need to stop reimbursements for expensive procedures that don’t work.